A GoAir aircraft taxis on the tarmac at Bengaluru International Airport in Bangalore

Budget carrier GoAir Thursday announced the launch of direct flight services to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai from Kannur International Airport, starting December 9.

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The launch of these services coincide with the inauguration of the newly-built Kannur Airport by civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu along with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha.

With this launch, GoAir will now operate more than 1,600 weekly flights by the end of December, it said.

The airport, the fourth international one in Kerala and to be operated by Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL), is the second greenfield airport to be built under public-private partnership (PPP) model in Kerala after Kochin International Airport.

The Kerala government owns 32.86 per stake in KIAL, while 22.54 per cent stake is held by state and Central Public Sector Undertakings.

Another 35.21 per cent holding rests with others, including qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), individuals, companies, while the remaining 9.39 per cent stake is with the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The new airport is spread over 2,330 acres of land with a runway length of 3,050 meters, and is expected to serve more than one million passengers annually to begin with.